7 comments:

I agree that government workers can be overpaid - it doesn't really make sense to say otherwise. Wouldn't it be more reasonable to argue that they *aren't* overpaid, even where in some cases it would appear that they are? After all, we're not paying letter carriers millions of dollars; we're paying federal administrative workers about twice their private sector counterparts, which is still not a huge salary. Maybe the private sector is underpaying its less exceptionally educated workers. But maybe I'm asking a different question - what should people be paid as a matter of policy, rather than, how much is their work worth in value.

It's also worth noting that we tend to pay lower-level and blue collar workers relative to the private sector average, but underpay (sometimes vastly underpay) public sector workers with postgraduate degrees or with specialized knowledge.

The military has especially been having problems with this when it comes to doctors, who are offered all kinds of bonuses and incentive pay depending on their specialities. This can (sometimes often) mean that MDs in uniform get paid more that people several paygrades above them. And yet we still have trouble retaining doctors, because private sector health care market compensation is just impossible for Congress to keep up with.

Absolutely true and very problematic. I'm a government attorney who gets paid literally about half of what my private sector counterparts get paid (and I'm well paid for a government attorney)! For me and for many others in this position, the payoff is in quality of life and benefits (among other more intangible reasons it would take much longer to explain). Those working in the private sector have less job security and work many more hours than I do, in addition to having far less flexibility.

So, for me, it's absolutely worth it, and my sense from my colleagues is that they agree. Of course, that doesn't apply in the military context, and I'm not sure how it would apply in other specialized professions. But, my question is, how do we deal with that/incentivize highly trained and specialized professionals to work in the public sector (as I've been incentivized), whether through salary or by other means? Not, why are we paying administrative staff and blue collar workers so much when specialized workers get paid (relatively) so little?